However, as you post high-quality images on your WordPress blog or site, it is recommended to look into the page loading speed at the same time.
As per a study by HTTP Archive, images are known to take up around 60 percent of the data that gets loaded on the respective web pages. As images are an integral component of any WordPress blog or page, you need to ensure effective image loading speed for your site.
Whether you are running an e-commerce website or a finance web portal, blogging platform, travel portal, or any similar website – image optimization is a critical aspect you should consider as soon as possible.
The task of image optimization for your WordPress site can be divided into three broad categories – load lighter images, load fewer images, and load faster images.
When you observe the faster websites out there, you will come across the fact that end users are happier to use such web portals.
This is because faster websites tend to have slower load times, improved search engine rankings as the site speed is a ranking factor, and higher conversion rates implying improved profits throughout.
How to know if Images are slowing down your website?
Slow websites or slow loading web portal pages deliver the most frustrating user experiences. As such, as a business owner, you can look forward to frustrated users, higher bounce rates, and reduced ROI in the long run.
However, before you start with the task of image optimization, it is important to know of the reasons why the page speed is getting slower.
Moreover, it is also important to analyze how the presence of images on your WordPress blog or site is affecting the overall page loading speed.
To analyze the same, you can make use of an innovative tool “GTMetrix” This tool is known to be effective in telling you the overall site size as well as the load time of the site.
The best load time for a website is considered to be less than 3 seconds.
The tool is also known to measure the individual elements of a WordPress site such that you can look into the respective problem areas affecting the page loading speed.
As per the golden rule of thumb, it is suggested that you should aim at keeping the image size less than 100kb.
If you have images bigger than 100Kb, you can look forward to implementing effective image optimization techniques for the best results.
How can I get images to load faster on my website?
If you wish to draw the attention of the end users with the help of interactive WordPress pages or blogs, with the presence of high-quality images that load faster, here are some pro tips from the experts:
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1) Resize the Images:
Again, this is the golden rule of thumb. For increasing the overall speed of loading images and WordPress blog for your site, it is recommended to resize the images to exactly the specific requirements of your WordPress site.
Here, we are not talking about making use of CSS or HTML for resizing the images.
The resizing of the images should be carried out on the server end. After resizing at the server, the images should be sent back to the browser for improved performance.
As per the experts, the incorrect resizing of the images on WordPress blog is one of the biggest reasons for slow loading web pages. As such, it also turns out to be the core area for image optimization.
The best scenario for image optimization using the resizing technique is to make use of a reliable image server that can help in resizing the image to any specific dimension of your choice.
By using the image server, you can resize the image in real-time by simply changing the image URL.
As such, whenever you require changing the image dimensions, all you are required to do is to specify the new dimension for the URL of the images.
If you find this technique difficult or cannot access the image server, you can also make use of WordPress’s inbuilt image resize tool. You can use it to crop/scale the image or alter its aspect ratio.
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2) Optimize the Images:
Once you are done with the image resizing, the next step you can take is to optimize the images for enhanced performance.
If you wish to deliver the same high-quality impression of the images on your site, it is recommended to make use of the right quality as well as the format for every image that is present on the website.
GIF, PNG, and JPG are the most common image formats that are currently being employed on the Internet. Depending on your use case, you can make use of the specific image format on your WordPress blog.
When you wish to optimize the particular image to appear of high-quality dimension while still improving the page loading speed, you can make use of a reliable free image optimizer.
Image Optimizer is a free, high-end image optimizing tool that offers the ease of image optimization with just a few simple steps.
You can make use of the free online service provided by Image Optimizer to resize, compress, and optimize the images or image files on your site.
All you are required to do is to choose the specific image file and then, specify the optimization parameters.
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3) Use an SEO-Friendly Plugin:
While you might consider making use of plugins for your WordPress site to enhance the overall site performance, you can still make use of certain SEO-friendly plugins like WP Meta and others to ensure effective image optimization at the same time.
WordPress comes with a set of built-in plugins that help in optimizing the entire site. One such WP Meta plugin – referred to as WP Smush.it – is a leading WordPress plugin that helps in ensuring image compression and optimization for improved page loading speed.
Smush.it is a great WP plugin that works by checking all the images on your site and optimizing the same for you. You can look forward to optimizing individual images as well as bulk batches using this plugin.
The free version of the Smush.it WP plugin is known to work with any image that is smaller than 1 Mb.
For the images of larger resolutions, the users are recommended to make use of the image optimization techniques for replacing the image or reducing the image size.
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4) Use a Reliable CDN for Faster Image Delivery:
Once you are done with the resizing of the images as well as determining the number of images you will be using on the WordPress site, you can then ensure that the images are getting loaded on your site instantly.
When you tend to decrease the overall image load time, it not only helps you in ensuring a faster page loading time, but it also helps you in ranking higher on the search engines.
CDNs or Content Delivery Networks are referred to as the proxy servers or distributed caching networks spread out across the globe.
When you are selecting a CDN, it is recommended to make sure that the CDN is capable of supporting HTTP/2. It is a new protocol that aims at delivering the required content across the web while speeding up the page loading time significantly.
By making use of advanced techniques like indexing, server push, and header compression, it helps in reducing the overall page load time.
Therefore, the experts suggest that you should always make use of a reliable CDN service provider to ensure improved speed for loading images as well as content on your WordPress site.
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5) Load Fewer Resources:
If you are facing the issue of website images taking too long to load, you can consider reducing the number of resources on your WordPress site.
Even when you are done with image optimization, loading too many of them could result in the page loading speed problems.
You can speed up image loading in WordPress by using fewer images. Moreover, you can also consider not loading the images up front. Instead of images, you can think of using the lightweight buttons, icons, gradients, and other advanced components by making use of the CSS.
Another important technique that you can consider using is the process of “lazy loading” the images. The term “lazy loading” implies that you are deferring the loading of images that might not be required instantly.
Usually, the image that might not be required by the user on the viewport or screen right away can be loaded at a later point – when the user is entering the viewport.
Conclusion
When you are looking for solutions to how to make a website load faster with images, you can opt for effective image optimization techniques. With the right information in hand, you can optimize the overall user experience.
For the images on your WordPress site, you should always remember to keep them light and bright.
